Sun Peaks Resort Blog

Sun Peaks had the pleasure of playing host to the You Look Good Rider’s Cup last weekend in the Rockstar Energy Terrain Park. The course was a bit slow at the beginning due a short but furious snowfall that morning but it didn’t take long for the competitors to find their groove and put on a great show. Local rider Geremy Guido used his stellar back 5 rodeos to make it into the Coors Light Pro Men’s Finals and Kamloops shredder, Christina Adams frontside 3’d and 5’d her way into third place in the Coors Light Pro Women final . This pair were also the winners of the No Bail Peace Prize for Men’s Open Snowboard and Women’s Open Snowboard in the Sun Peaks Rail Slayer Series this season.

For the full contest results and details check out the push.ca blog post and Snowboard Canada’s Magazine coverage of the event. There were also a slew of locals in the Grom and Ams divisions who rocked out all day in the park. Thanks to everyone for coming out and making it such a sweet event!

This week, I caught up with the Coors Light Pro Men’s Champ, Craig Beaulieu. Originally from Northern Ontario, he is now a BC shred working on the Canadian backcountry and contest scene.

Beaulieu sending it!

Congrats on the win! How did you feel heading into the comp?Thank you very much! I was feeling fairly confident because this was my third You Look Rider’s Cup in Sun Peaks and I have never not won one. This was the third one I was coming into, and I was pretty confident I was going to win. But then a friend of mine showed up and he’s a really good snowboarder, so that kinda threw me, Jon Versteeg, he got second.

The margin was really slim between you two.It was actually less than a point, yeah. So when he showed up it just threw me off a bit. I’ve been riding really well, and I knew there was gonna be a lot good riders, but Jon is riding very well this season so as soon as I saw him I knew I had to step up my game. I got real serious but it was still fun. I just had to remember that I can’t be too serious because then it takes the fun out of riding and I don’t do as well. It ended up working pretty good in the end.

What was your favourite trick you threw down?I was getting a lot of speed off the last jump so it was actually the backside rodeo just because I never really do them. I was trying to spin frontside and do a frontside 9, but I was wafting a lot of my speed coming off my heels. So I thought, what’s a good trick that I can do that will get me further down the landing? It gives you that extra pop off the jump so I decided to do that and I guess it worked out pretty good.

Were there any standout moments or riders for you?Jon’s Cab 10, for sure. I had went before him and was watching from the bottom. I saw him coming in cab 9 then he disappeared to go cab 10, like he went huge! Then I saw him hit the last jump so obviously he landed it, so that was pretty crazy when I saw that. Also, just Craig McMorris’ riding in general, I love that kid, I love riding with him, he’s just the man and every time I watch him snowboard it makes me happy. And watching the girls actually, the girls were throwing down. Gillian Andrewshenko, who got first place, was definitely throwing down and when she dropped, all the guys at the top were in awe at how her good her run was from the top, she killed it, it was great.

What did you think of Sun Peaks’ Park?This was definitely the best park I have ridden all year. I’m gonna say that for sure. Just the diversity. When I was here two years ago the park started basically where the course started and this year it goes way up, so when you get to the top of the lift you are not just riding until you get to the park, there are cool little features on the way, some cool log rides through the bushes and stuff, so it’s pretty rad. I mean, they are definitely doing a good job at Sun Peaks. Anybody I rode the chairlift up with was just so excited about the park and they just couldn’t believe it, they said it was like you are riding in the States. There are great features throughout the whole course, not just monster features, which are cool too, but this is fun because you have your fun features until you get to the big park.

Did you have a chance to check out the rest of the resort?We actually didn’t because when I got there it was pretty much just practice and competing in that one area. I have always wanted to, I didn’t know the mountain was that big, because I have always been so focused on the park when I’m there, but Sun Peaks is massive! I was sitting on the chairlift with this one skier guy, who has been living in Sun Peaks for 16 years and lived in Whistler before that and he was telling me all about the backside and side country. He was saying about knee deep pow, it sounded pretty sick but we didn’t get a chance to check it out unfortunately.

Did you head to the Coors Light Party at MacDaddy’s afterward?I did not, kinda of a funny story. I’m the push.ca host as well for You Look Good so for a funny thing we talked the guy running the bungee at the bottom and asked if we would do a push.ca interview with Craig on the bungee. He for sure and congrats and everything so I jumped on the bungee and started doing a bunch of flips. As soon as I got off I got really dizzy and sick to my stomach. So I went into Bottom's and had a beer and started to feel really, really sick, like a migraine. So I went up to bed and passed out for an hour. My cousin woke me up to go party but I just stayed in bed! I didn’t party, which is kinda crazy because usually after you win you rage…

Wutang sending Beaulieu

You are leading the You Look Good series on points now, do you plan to head to Ontario for the last Rider’s Cup?That is a great question and I am not sure. I just got a text message form my brother-in-law who said he just saw a seat sales from Vancouver to Toronto so I am trying to debate between that and the Showcase Showdown in Whistler. The thing is, if I don’t go and Harrison Grey wins it, he will win the surf trip. But if he gets anything other than first place then I get the trip… so it’s like, do I go? I’m rolling the dice, cause if I go and I perform crappy then I wasted a bunch a money and missed out on a contest here where I wouldn’t have spent any money. I just need to sit down and think this one through…

I heard you were the push.ca host for the comp, what does that entail?Just presenting the resort, interviewing riders to get their input on the course, what they think of the content, all that kinda stuff. And also doing interviews at the end of it with the winners and the people who got best trick, it was pretty mellow. And also interviewing Andrew Singleton the founder of You Look Good Rider’s Cup contest series and also Event Sing promotions so it was really good to get his input on what he thought of the contest and how it started… It was fun, it’s kinda fun to be in front of a camera, especially when people are watching you do interviews. It can kinda make you a little nervous but it’s also funny at the same time, because it is just for fun, it’s not going to be on international TV, kinda thing. The video will be posted sometime next week so definitely look out for that, it will be funny.

How do you like working with Ride Snowboards?I’m not fully on the Ride Team but I am definitely putting together a solid film part this year, filming for Alterna Action. I’ve filming with them for three years now and this year’s part is looking good. I’m also winning a bunch of contests this year and I’m really representing Ride to the best of my ability this year so hopefully the team manager picks up on it. I could do more represnting Ride wwith traveling and international contests if I had a budget to travel.

How has been this filming this season? Anything we should watch out for?My Alterna part is going be a good this year. We’ve got a lot shots and traveled a bunch. We are actually heading to Iceland to film in April, it’s gonna be pretty sweet.

How do you plan to finish off this season?I’m looking at a truck today, I just want to get a little beater truck to finish off the season and fit my sled in so I can film in the backcountry a lot more.